To think that people who agree with VAT on private school fees but not on university fees, are hypocrites?

[Blanket601]

If Labour add VAT to private school fees, they should also add VAT to university fees. Or no VAT on either. The principle and rule, should be the same.

Why is only private school education being platformed. I think we all know why.

The only alternative to paying for uni education is a degree apprenticeship (employer pays) and places are limited and not all career paths have a degree apprenticeship route.

So many threads about private school and VAT at the moment …

It's not remotely the same though is it. You can't choose to either go to a free university or a private one, for a start!

It’s nowhere near the same. Thanks to student loans and apprenticeships a uni education is open to all. Private education on the other hand is only open to the richest 5% who can afford it.

School level education gives you a choice between state and private options. At University level there isn’t that choice.

A comparable solution would be to create free state funded Universities with private options that require fees (including VAT).

Considering the mess that is the student loan system, increasing the amount will just create a bigger deficit and raise the interest rates on loans for future generations.
Personally I don’t care if private school fees and other things like private medical fees attracted VAT. It is obviously a virtue signalling move by Labour but it’s also not going to end up with state schools having 40 in a class either as many parents can still afford fee rises.

The alternative to university education is not to go to university. Comparing this with schools is like comparing apples and oranges.

Realistically, there is no way most parents would manage to meet the requirement for children aged between 5 and 18 to be in full-time education without sending them to school. The people who oppose paying for school level education say it's buying your child a privilege and there's no need for it because there are state-funded schools your child can attend free of charge.

(There are of course a lot of counter-arguments to that, involving people who pay a huge premium to live in the catchment of good state schools, people who pay a small fortune to tutors and for extra-curricular activities for their children, people who send their children to academically selective state-funded schools, people who find religion to get their children into religious schools, and so on. Also people who need wraparound care and holiday schemes to make it possible for both parents or a single parent to carry on with their career(s).)

6% of kids attend private school, a highly privileged section of the population overall. (And yes I know not all kids who go to.provate school are privileged but they are privileged to be able to go to private school as it's not possible for most children. ) Around 50% of young people attend university. It's a much more impactful mechanism for improving young people's lives. Again I recognise the more privileged are more likely to go and universities could do better on social mobility. But it's not remotely the same.

I've always thought it's unfair to put the responsibility for social mobility on universities. The focus should be on the earliest years of a child's life. Scrapping Sure Start was one of the most short-sighted decisions taken in recent times. If a child falls behind on language, social skills and motor skills in babyhood, they're likely to fall further and further behind at school and have next to no change of meeting the standards to go on to higher education.

Totally agree

Private schools should be abolished

Agreed.

This is the hypocrisy from Labour and everyone talking about ‘charitable status’ . The argument used to justify the move. That status is why universities don’t have VAT.
Removing it from private schools is inconsistently applying the principle, from Labour. An envy politics people pleasing ‘punish the wealthy’ policy (which it won’t because the really truly wealthy people won’t notice the difference, creating more inequality).

I'm guessing you are struggling with private school fees?

Isn’t because uni is essential but private school is a luxury?

The only realistic parallel would be if you weren't add VAT to private universities. I believe there are a couple of them.

So YABU and it seems to me that you're not going to convert anyone by abusing people who disagree with your desire not to pay VAT on your non essential education choice.

Many more.kids benefit from universities paying no vat so leave universities out of private school problems.

Sorry 'were to add'

Hmmmm maybe, but then university places are generally awarded based on the ability of the student, with fees for those who can't afford them upfront covered by the government and reclaimed once the student is in a position to repay them.

So maybe instead of adding vat to uni fees we should make private school admissions more like university admissions i.e., any child can go as long as they achieve the entry criteria and if their parents can't afford to pay the fees the government picks up the cost until they can.

I can't see many private school parents going along with that idea though as it would remove that competitive advantage they're paying for.

I don’t think there should be VAT on either, but unis are not comparable to schools.

This is wild.
Envy politics? Really?
I think you should probably take a step back and really consider your thought process more widely.

Do private schools deserve charitable status? No.
Do Universities deserve charitable status? Also - probably no but they are definitely different.

Increasing tax revenue is not about punishing anyone, it is about ensuring society has the things that it needs to properly function, something that it is not doing at the moment.

The current system may be working for those who can afford private schooling, but it's not working for everyone. I don't understand how those wealthy enough to afford private schooling (like myself) should feel that we deserve this tax break more than say, allowing for a 3rd or 4th child receiving child benefits in families in need?

Assuming people are envious is usually a sign of something else in my experience.

Universities exist for the benefit of everyone in society. Private schools exist for the benefit of the most privileged. So privileged in fact that they're now bleating at the prospect of the rest of society not subsidising their privilege.

I work at a uni and there are murmurings of a push to tiered fees. I think it's awful because it will mean courses like medicine will only be for the rich but these things are being pushed by people who never have to think of these things for themselves or their families so they don't see the big deal.

Education, from child care to university, should not attract VAT.
That is my belief.

Agree with this. Children do not need private school. However, a lot of careers do need a university degree.

Education should be accessible to all. There is a free state school system. Some people don't agree with the 2 tier system and believe there is no need for it. Any argument for a need for private school involves saying state school is inadequate. If it is inadequate for the children of the rich it is inadequate for the children of the poor and everyone in-between.
There are no free universities. It's pay the fees or don't go. So not the same at all.